Brethren, we have met to worship why we came here this morning, right worship God
448 448 let's sing it all together on the first
Father we just thank you that we could be here this Sunday morning sing praises into your name
I'm worship for you with your people. I just pray you'd fill brother Dylan all's with your Holy Spirit
prayers heart as he preaches to us your word and help us Lord for ears to be open and
Ready to apply these teachings to our lives that we could walk out of here better Christians
And just please be with us as we go out preaching the gospel this afternoon that we can just be very fruitful
Jesus name. Amen. Next is gonna be
203 windows of heaven are open
203 the song is pretty quick. So we're gonna sing it two times. All right song 203 the windows of heaven
Windows of heaven are open the blessings are falling tonight
There's joy joy joy in my heart since Jesus made everything wrong
I gave him my old tattered garment. He gave me a robe of pure wine
I'm feasting on manna from heaven and that's why I'm happy tonight
windows of heaven are open the blessings are falling tonight
There's joy joy joy in my heart since Jesus made everything wrong
I gave him my old tattered garment. He gave me a robe of pure wine
I'm feasting on manna from heaven and that's why I'm happy tonight
Hey good morning everyone welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church this time we'll go through our
bulletin if you don't have one please raise your hand and Usher will bring you one
first of the week is John 133 we've got a great picture of the state of Idaho right there beautiful
beautiful place I don't know why I like that place so much uh let's see if we open up our
bulletins on the right side we got our service times you're here for Sunday morning 10 30 a.m
we have a Spanish service every Sunday evening at 4 30 p.m our Sunday evening English service at 5
30 p.m and our Wednesday evening Bible study 7 p.m we have there are church-wide soul-winding
times listed there if it's church-wide that means that the soul-winding time meets here at the
building just this week brother Jason's time is switching from a church-wide time used to meet
here at the building now it's going to meet somewhere in Arlington so I'll send out an email
every Friday night or post on Facebook as to where that's going to be meeting Arlington was
pretty receptive and went there a couple weeks ago but we want to just keep going to places that
are really receptive also there's many other soul-winding regional times there brother Jeff
Goodwin leads one brother Moulton leads two the Marcel leads one and then the last Saturday of
every month there's like a joint soul-winning time where it's kind of like a little all town
soul-winning hopefully there's donuts and coffee in the morning and usually they go out to eat
somewhere afterwards a lot of fun but if you love soul-winning lots of opportunities for you here
at this church make sure when you're done with your maps you turn it back into the bin if it's
completed put it in the completed folder if not it either goes in the single maps or the van maps
real easy to remember you went by yourself it goes in the single maps if you went with the van
goes in the van maps we have our prayer list on the right our expectant ladies make sure to keep
them in prayer as well as the weekly needs of our church if you have any prayer requests make
sure to send them in to the email address listed there and if there's anything that you want us to
be praying for on an ongoing basis we send that in once every week so we can keep that in the
bulletin on the back here we have our upcoming events July 6th this Wednesday pastor Stephen
Anderson is going to be preaching for us it'll be a great time I think he's already driven over like
4 000 miles across America or something like that I mean I don't know how he's writing his sermons
during this time he's probably not writing it's all in his mind that's going to be pretty cool
to see him preach I don't know which uh son of Jacob he's going to be preaching here does anyone
know Benjamin or Joseph oh okay please Benjamin I could think of some good sermons regarding
Benjamin right now July 10th we have an ordination service for our own brother Duncan Urbanik here
being ordained as an evangelist uh towards that church looking forward to that would be a great
celebration July 10th 24th and 31st lord willing we're going to continue our song leading music
class this morning we just went over the introduction of song leading next sunday morning
pastor Shelley said that he's going to be leading that class and I think he's going to go over more
like music theory and like reading music and stuff like that then the last two uh classes will be
more practice instruments can play along song leaders can get practice hand motions and time
signals all that oh this morning was a lot of fun like to make it it's not too late to sign up you
can sign up for any of the dates and everyone's welcome to come to that and then also our mighty
men's retreat august 18th through 20th we have a sign up sheet in front for that as well and at
this time we have a couple other things that we're going to cover here 271 cleansing all right 471
maybe a newer song for some of you we sung it a few times here more of a slow song 471
lends me on the first the offering plates go around if you would please turn in your bibles
to ecclesiastes chapter 7 please the estes chapter number 7 we're going to read the whole chapter as
always for the sermon you can follow along silently starting in verse number one please the estes
chapter 7 where the Bible reads, "Good name is better than precious ointment, the day
of death and the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than
to go to the house of feasting, but that is the end of all men, and the living will lay
it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the heart
is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools
is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man
to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter
of the fool. This also is vanity. Surely oppression makeeth the wise man mad, and a gift destroyeth
the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in
spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for
anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Say not thou, what is the cause that the former
days were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. Wisdom
is good with an inheritance, and by it there is profit to them that see the sun. For wisdom
is a defense, and money is a defense. Excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to
them that have it. Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight which he hath
made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.
God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing
after him. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity. There is a just man that perisheth
in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.
Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself over wise. Why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish. Why shouldest thou die before thy time? It
is good that thou shouldest take hold of this, yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand,
for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all. Wisdom strengtheneth the wise more
than ten mighty men which are in the city, for there is not a just man upon earth that
doeth good and sinneth not. Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou
hear thy servant curse thee, for often times also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself
likewise hast cursed others. All this have I proved by wisdom. I said, I will be wise,
but it was far from me, that which is far off and exceeding deep. Who can find it out?
I apply mine heart to know and to search and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things
and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And I find more
bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands, who
so pleaseth God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. Behold,
this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one to find out the account, which
yet my soul seeketh, but I find not. One man among a thousand have I found, but a woman
among all those have I not found. Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man
upright, but they have sought out many inventions. Let's pray. Father, God, just pray now, Lord,
that you would fill Brother Dylan Oz with your spirit and also that you would be the
Pastor Shelley at Faithful Word Baptist Church and just bring it back to us safely. And Lord,
give us ears to hear and soften hearts in the room so that we can apply the message
to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Well, first of all, thank you all for
coming and thank you, Pastor Shelley, for allowing me to preach again. I do appreciate
it and always love the opportunity, blessing to preach the Word of God. And today we're
here in Ecclesiastes chapter number seven. Ecclesiastes chapter number seven. And let's
read in verse number 10. The Bible says, "Say not thou, what is the cause that the former
days were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." And the
title of my sermon this morning is "Stop Living in the Past." Stop living in the past. Let's
read that verse again, verse number 10. It says, "Say not thou, what is the cause that
the former days were better than these, for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this."
The Bible says it's not a wise thing to do, to look back at the old days and ask yourself
why were those days so much better than they are now? The Bible is condemning this type
of thought, but let's be honest, this is a very, very common temptation, probably especially
for our church, probably especially right now, to be looking back at the "good old
days" and longing for those days and thinking about those days and kind of having a bad
attitude about our situation right now and the time and day that we live in right now.
But look at verse number nine. I think these verses are connected. It says this, "Be not
hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools." So right
before this verse, the Bible is talking about someone who's angry and someone who has anger
resting in their heart and that person is a fool and right after that, it's giving
you the instruction to not say, "Well, why were the old days so much better?" The reason
why these things are connected is because if you're constantly looking back at the
old days, you're constantly longing for the "good old days," you're going to be an angry
person because there's a lot of things to be angry about today and it's not a sin to
be angry, it's not a sin to get angry, but it is a sin to just continuously be in a state
of anger. That is a sin, right? The Bible says, "Be ye angry and sin not," meaning
there is a way to be angry and it not be sinful, but if you're just constantly an angry person,
you're constantly upset about everything, that is a sin and that's not an attitude
that God wants us to have. I'll read for you 1 Thessalonians 5.18, the Bible says,
"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
The Bible says that in everything we should give thanks. That includes where we live,
that includes the day and time in which we live, that includes the circumstances that
we have in our lives. We're supposed to be thankful for every single thing. Now, that
is a hard attitude to have. That takes a mature Christian to have that attitude, but that
is God's desire for us as Christians, is to have that attitude. So I have three points
this morning, and number one, we need to stop living in the past as a Christian movement.
We have to stop living in the past as a Christian movement. You know, this week I was listening
to a bunch of sermons. I was listening to Don R. Rice sermons. I was listening to Pastor
Jack Heil sermons. I was listening to these old preachers, and I love these guys. I love
listening to them. I had this foolish thought. You know, this sermon is for me this morning.
You guys can listen if you want, but this sermon is for me. I had this foolish thought
when I was listening to these great men of God preach. I'm like, "Man, these guys are
preaching so hard. In some cases, like, these guys are preaching harder than this, and they
have a nice building. How does this work? You know, how is it that these guys are ripping
face, these guys are preaching hard, and they have a church full of thousands and thousands
and thousands of independent, fundamental, soul-winning, King James Bible reading, dress-wearing
women, suit-and-tie-wearing men, chicken-eating Baptists in their church. How is it that they
have this when they're preaching the same way we are and, you know, we're preaching
those same things and look at our circumstances? I'm just telling you my foolish thought.
This isn't a good attitude to have. I'm just telling you this is the attitude that
I kind of have this week, and I had to have the Bible kind of wake me up here in Ecclesiastes
7 and saying that this is not the right attitude that we should have. But can we say that
it is a common temptation to look at the old days and long for those days and think highly
of them and wish that we kind of had that, right? But that's not necessarily how God
wants us to live. You know, I had this thought, "Wow, it must have been nice to be a Christian
in the 1950s, in the 1960s, in the 1970s." These are kind of like the thoughts that I
was having in my mind, right? But, you know, I'm going to tell you that previous generations
had lots of problems too. We kind of look back at those days through rose-colored glasses
as we're watching a 35-minute sermon, 35 minutes into the glimpse of history, and we
just put rose-colored glasses on that, and we just think that it was so good back then.
But every single generation has had their problems. You say, "Well, oh man, I really
wish that I was, you know, around during the days of Jesus Christ." Okay, well John the
Baptist was beheaded, and it would have been so cool to be around when the apostles were
doing their great works for the Lord in the book of Acts. Okay, but they were beaten up
and thrown in jail, and many of them were killed later in their life. You know, oh,
it would have been so nice to be a Christian back in the 1700s. It's like, okay, no electricity,
no running water. I mean, is it really that great, right? Every single generation has
had their problems, and every single generation there's been people that were thriving while
other people that were having problems. I want to tell you a story about a man named
Dean Miller. Has anyone heard of this guy, Dean Miller, before? Life story of Dean Miller
on YouTube. You should really listen to it. It's excellent, but he started a church in
the 1970s. He was pastoring the same time Dr. John R. Rice, Jack Hiles, all these great
guys were pastoring. But while Pastor Hiles and Pastor Rice, while their churches were
thriving and flourishing, Dean Miller was being persecuted severely. This guy had a
lot of problems. This guy had worse problems than us. He literally had Satanists get construction
equipment and put giant boulders on the windows and doors of his house and barricaded him
in his house. I have some similar things but not even close, not even close to that kind
of stuff going on. They literally just hurt his property, spray painted his vehicle, spray
painted Joe Jones, Joseph Jones, whatever that false prophet cult leader is. What is
it? Jim Jones, sorry. Pastor Joe Jones is great. I'm thinking of that guy. Good night.
The last name. Sorry Pastor Jones. They're writing Jim Jones on his stuff, persecuting
Satanists literally burned his entire church building to the ground. Beautiful, big church.
They burned the entire thing to the ground. This guy, Dean Miller, he had pictures of
his wife and kids in his office and Satanists broke the pictures and put knives through
the hearts of the pictures of his family members. I mean this guy, this guy had lawsuits. This
guy had persecution like crazy. All at the same time that Brother Heil's churches was
doing great and while John R. Rice was doing great, this guy was suffering persecution.
So yeah, you could look back, "Oh, I wish I was born at that time." Yeah, but if you
were born at that time, you would be going to Dean Miller's church and you'd be dealing
with worse problems. So it doesn't make any sense to be thinking about that.
I want to read this article and you know, our church has been in the news so when I
read this article, take it with a grain of salt because we know how much the news likes
to tell the truth, right? It's a joke. So this article was written long after Dean Miller
retired but, you know, this church still has a lot of hatred from the world for how much
Dean Miller did for the Lord when he was the pastor. So this was written in 2009 and it
says, "Cornistone Baptist Church reportedly proselytizing D11 students." So notice, breaking
news, a Baptist church is preaching the gospel. I mean, that is newsworthy stuff right there.
That's scary, right? We need to have a whole news article about a church preaching the
gospel. Sounds like things weren't that different in 2009, you know? Sounds like they still
hated God in 2009. It says this, a Colorado Springs church with a history of controversy.
That's a good thing. Over its attempts to bring children into its fold by saving and
baptizing them has been evangelizing recently outside at least one middle school and two
elementary schools. Portisone Baptist Church fell into the spotlight again after an incident
Thursday near Russell Middle School. According to Colorado Springs School District 11 officials,
a church group tried to lure a seventh grader into a church van. You gotta love the language
used to this, right? Like every old IFB church has a bus ministry where they pick up kids
and bring them to church but yet the article wants to say they were trying to lure children
into a van. I'm surprised they didn't try to like throw candy into this description
too, right? Ridiculous. And a girl went home and told her parents. Now of course we don't
do a bus ministry and it's partly because the optics of it do look really bad and we
don't want to, you know, make the appearance that we're even doing anything wrong even
though I don't think these people are doing anything wrong. I think they're hard sincere.
I think they just want to see kids safe. There is a reason that we don't do this at this
church but I'm not going to sit here and think the worst of course on Baptist Church because
they're trying to have a bus ministry because they're trying to bring kids to church. I'm
not going to overly criticize them for that like this news article wants to do. The incident
was reported to the Colorado Springs Police Department but spokesman lieutenant David
Whitlock said he hadn't been able to track down a report to confirm details. Why is the
news reporting this? They're saying oh there was supposedly some incident that was reported
to the police but the lieutenant just can't find a report on it. Like did this even happen
then? It's like why would you report this? The lieutenant doesn't even know if it happened
yet you're reporting that supposedly someone tried to lure a kid into a van. That's not
honest reporting and don't we see stuff like that about our church in the news all the
time? You know it's ridiculous. D-11 spokeswoman Elaine Neleski declined to name the church
but a source said it was Cornerstone Baptist Church. So notice the school isn't even alleging
that it was this church but they're like well you know another source said it might
be so. Assistant Pastor Ford Glover did not deny the allegations but declined to comment.
Neleski said proselytizing near Russell has been an issue for more than a week. After
Thursday's incident was reported children from two nearby elementary schools Keller
and Fremont also reported that people from a church approached them in recent weeks as
they walked to and from school. Still she said the district was surprised by the apparent
attempt to get a child to go in a van with strangers. We've never had a problem like
this before, Neleski said. We are shocked by their actions. Principals at Russell and
Keller sent home letters encouraging parents to talk to their children about not talking
to strangers. The district also is stepping up security protocols around the school. Quarter
Stone is 2.5 miles from Russell and has created public uproars in the past for baptizing children
without their parents' permission. The church was sued by eight children in the mid-1990s,
but a jury decided the church was guilty only of deception. Like I said, take this article
with a grain of salt because I want to give these people the benefit of the doubt. When
it says that this church supposedly baptized kids without their permission, does that mean
that mom and dad said, "Yeah, you can come pick up Johnny for the bus ministry and you
could bring him to church?" And the parents totally gave their permission for the kids
to come to church, but maybe they just didn't specifically know that he was getting baptized.
It's not like these kids were just snatched up and their parents have no idea where they
are, right? But the news wants to totally just twist things and make it look really
bad because even back in 2009, they still hated real Christians. They hated soul winners.
They wanted to lie and deceive about them. It says this, "Russell officials recently
met with the church's leader to complain about members coming onto school property
to preach the Bible. But rather than stop, church members started proselytizing from
public sidewalks outside the school." You see, there's an effort to shut up Christians
from even preaching the gospel. They want them to stop preaching on public property,
yeah, private property, and then instead of stopping, they did it on public property.
See, their goal is that you just stop preaching the gospel at all. That's their goal. "The
school will seek a no trespassing order if church members resume harassing children on
school property," Neleski said, "but it will be up to parents to take legal action against
the church if their children are approached in public areas outside of the school." And
then it just goes on and lists a bunch of controversies that this church has had throughout
the years. But it sounds to me like this church, if they're getting persecution, if they're
getting articles in the news about them, it seems to me that they're actually preaching
the gospel. It seems to me like they're doing great things for God. And when I look at the
testimony of the life story of Dean Miller, and there's Satanists blocking in his home
and burning down his church and persecuting him, it makes me think that Dean Miller's
a really godly man. It makes me think that this church was doing a really great thing
for God. But the reason why I'm telling you that is because Dean Miller started his ministry
at the same time Pastor Jack Hiles did. So we want to look back, oh man, so nice. Look
at First Baptist Church of Hammon, Indiana. Look at the movement of fundamentalism in
those decades. How great it flourished, not in Colorado Springs, not under Pastor Dean
Miller. Now, of course, the work of God flourished. You know, I bet you that church was blessed
spiritually. I'm just saying when you're looking back from a physical perspective,
you don't want to think that that generation just didn't have any problems because I just
proved to you that they did. They had serious problems. Every single generation has had
serious problems. And so even now in this generation, our church has a lot of persecution.
Our church is going through a lot of problems and issues and fighting. But praise God, there's
other churches right now in 2022 America that are doing great physically and spiritually.
I believe our church is doing great spiritually. I believe our church, you know, people are
getting saved here. People are getting baptized. People are growing in the Lord. People are
becoming soul winners. People are learning how to serve in the ministry. Our church is
doing great from a spiritual perspective. But hey, there's other churches that are
doing great from a spiritual perspective. And they have 50,000 subscribers on YouTube.
I'm not going to say who that is so that people don't go to attack him, right? But hey, that's
great. And so we have maybe we have to be the Dean Millers of this world. Maybe we have
to be harassed by the sodomites and harassed by the Satanists and have persecution against
our church and have us our name in the media and lie about us and all those things. But
guess what? Even if that happens, our church, the message of our church is getting out to
hundreds of millions of people. Did you hear what I just said? Hundreds of millions of
people. You know that on TikTok, the tag Steadfast Baptist Church, just that tag, not Pastor
Shelley's name, not my name, just the tag Steadfast Baptist Church has over 230 million
views. That's not including YouTube. That's not including CNN television. That's not including
CBS. That's not including all the YouTube videos that people have made about our church.
I'm talking one platform, TikTok, one hashtag, 230 million views. The message of our church
has gone out to the entire world. What is that worth? Is that worth suffering some persecution?
Absolutely. So yeah, we have some tough times. We have some hard issues that we're dealing
with, but the gospel and the word of God, all of the word of God, even Leviticus, is
getting out to hundreds of millions of people. Can every church say that today? No, they
cannot. So if we have to suffer a little bit, if others can prosper, but if we have to suffer,
if that's God's will, we should take that. We should not look back at the old days and
be like, man, it must have been so much better back then. No, that's a foolish thought. Rather,
we should realize the blessings that we have living in the time that we do and appreciate
that. You know, you think about, oh, I wish I was around during the time of the Reformation
when, you know, Christianity was, you know, getting things right and breaking away from
the Catholic Church. It's like, okay, well, William Tyndale was burned on the stake. Is
that who you want to be, right? I mean, I have a pretty great life. You know, it's pretty
chill, right? I think it's the same for most people here living in America in the state
of Texas, compared to the things that previous generations went through. It's really nothing
that we're dealing with. So keep your place in Ecclesiastes and go to Philippians chapter
number four. Philippians chapter number four. Philippians chapter number four, let's start
reading in verse number 11. It says, "Not that I speak in respect of want," meaning
he's not desiring or in need of anything, "for I have learned in whatsoever state I
am therewith to be content." Paul said, "Hey, when it came to my physical location, I was
content. When it came to my circumstances of life, I was content. When it came to the
possessions that I owned or did not own, I was content." That's the attitude that we
should have. Look at verse number 12, "I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound
everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to
abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthen it." And
we as Christians, we as a Christian movement need to learn to be content with the time
that we are living in. We need to learn to be content with living in 2022 America as
our nation is falling apart. We need to learn to be content serving God in that time because
this is the time that God has placed us. God has chosen for us to be born in the time
that we were born in. God has chosen where we were born, all these things, and we are
here for a reason. We are here to please God, and it is not doing anything beneficial for
the kingdom of God or for you to sit here and complain about the time that you live
in. It does nothing good whatsoever. It actually harms the cause of Christ because it discourages
other people, and it makes other people want to quit serving God. Go back to Ecclesiastes.
What is, in Ecclesiastes chapter number 12, what is our mission in life? Why is it that
God put us on this earth? Look at Ecclesiastes chapter number 12, verse 13. Ecclesiastes
12-13 says this, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." The one reason why you exist on this
earth is to fear God and keep His commandments. You were created for God's pleasure. You
were not created for you to have a pleasureful life, for you to get all the things that you
want in your life, for you to have a real easy, push Christian life. No, God created
you for His pleasure to fear Him and to keep His commandments. And if that has to be in
2022, then it has to be in 2022. You should have a good attitude about that. You know,
why else should our Christian movement not be one that lives in the past? Well, because
honestly we can do even greater works now than they could have done in the 70s and 80s
and 90s. We actually have more resources and more ability now today in 2022 to do a greater
work for God than those guys did. Like I just said, hundreds of millions of people heard
our message. Hundreds of millions of people. We didn't have hundreds of millions of subscribers
on YouTube, okay? Our enemies literally did all the work for us. But we're able to accomplish
more because of the time that we live in. I'll read for you John 14, 12. Jesus said
this, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do
shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father."
Jesus said that we're going to be able to do greater works, not in quality, but in quantity.
Think about this. How long would it have taken for the Apostle Paul to get the Word of God
out to hundreds of millions of people? How much work would that have taken? I mean, he's
got it. He went on three long missionary journeys. He's going by boat. He's having to deal with
all these issues, and he's doing everything on foot or by boat, like I said. We just had
one church service, one church service, and the Word of God went out to hundreds of millions
of people. Praise God for that. Jesus is right. Greater works can we do because of the time
that we live in, because of the advantages that we have, because of cars, right? Because
that we can go anywhere. We can go soul winning anywhere in this DFW Metro, any single day
of the week at ease, and we can drive there in air conditioning, and you can drink an
iced coffee on the way, and you can listen to hymns on the radio on the way. I mean,
it's so easy to get more work done for God. We have airplanes, where me and Pastor Shelley
can just hop on a plane, go to Washington D.C., get some footage, and come home the
same day. That's amazing, right? We could have soul winning marathons where, because
of the internet, we can organize, we can mobilize thousands of soul winners across America
to go out and preach the gospel all over this country. We can organize that because of the
internet. You know how hard it would be to mobilize thousands of soul winners in the
Apostle Paul's day? It wouldn't be done unless it's a miracle of God, right? We have a huge,
huge advantage. We have invitations. What a blessing. We knock on a door, we have an
ice breaker. I mean, that's nice, right? And we have little QR codes where people can
scan them with their smartphone and watch the Bible way to heaven, right? And we have
YouTube. Well, actually, we don't have YouTube, but, you know, other people have YouTube and
they could, you know, have live streams and all these great things like that. There's
a lot of blessings that we have in our time that allow us to do more for God that previous
generations did not have. And so, yeah, you can look back at the old times and long for
those days, but we actually have the opportunity to do more for God in our day. Would you want
to trade that? Absolutely not. You do not want to trade that. You know, think about
all these old IFB pastors that subscribe to this Laodicean church age. If you've ever
been in an old IFB church, you've probably heard preachers say, "Well, you know, we're
just in the -- we're in the Laodicean church age, brother, and people just don't want to
serve God anymore, and people just don't want to, you know, go soul-winning anymore. Hey,
speak for yourself. Here we are at St. Fast Baptist Church in the Laodicean church age,
going soul-winning every week, preaching hard every week. Our women still wear skirts and
dresses every day of their life. We could still preach the Word of God. We could still
believe the fundamentals of the faith. Even in 2022, there's no such thing as the Laodicean
church age. There's revival happening right now in our country. And so many old IP pastors
have just been praying for revival for so long. And then here's revival. And you know what they
do? They attack us. They fight against us. They go stand with God haters. They go give God haters
subway sandwiches. You reject revival. Here's revival. You reject it. You're not worthy of it.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever, the Bible says. The same Lord Jesus Christ,
Pastor Jack Hiles served is the same Lord Jesus Christ that the Apostle Peter served and the
Apostle Paul served. The same one that Pastor Anderson was serving back in 2007 and Pastor
Shelley's been serving since he got saved and that I've been serving since I've got saved. The same
Jesus, the same Jesus has nothing to do about the time that you live in. That does not matter. And
think about this, because we do live in a darker time, because we do live in a more wicked time,
our light actually gets to shine brighter than previous generations did. Go to Matthew chapter
number five, Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five, look at verse number 13.
"Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted,
it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men.
Ye are the light of the world; a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a
candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and they give it light unto all
that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Jesus taught that our good works should be
broadcasted, should be proclaimed before the eyes of the world, so they will see those good works,
recognize those good works and glorify God on our behalf. That is our mission, that is our goal,
is to let our light, the light of the King James Bible, the light of God's commandments,
shine through us unto the world. Now if you think about it, you have a candle, you have a flashlight
and you're outside in the Texas summer day and you turn on that flashlight, you're not really
going to be able to see that light very brightly, are you? But if you go into a cave and you light
up the smallest little match, I mean you could see that thing from a long, long ways away. And so
now that we're living in a very dark time, it does not take that much righteousness to light up this
world. It does not even take that much righteousness to really get the devil mad, to really get the
world mad. You know, our light shines so much brighter in this dark time. Let me give you an
example. I saw this old ad, and it looked like the ad was maybe in the 1960s, maybe 1950s. It
didn't have a time on it, but I just saw this ad, this clipping from a newspaper. It was an ad for
a home. It said this, three bedroom, one bath. Here's the total price of the home, $7,900.
The monthly payment was $49.74. Look, if you have a single income family and the wife stays home and
raises the kids in 1950, it really doesn't give that much glory to God when you're able to provide
for your family, because guess what? It was easy back then. It was really easy, right? But here in
2022, under Joe Biden's America, when inflation is skyrocketing and everything's expensive,
if you are a single income family and the wife stays home and raises the kids and the man goes
out and work, you know, people, they don't understand that. They say, "Wow, that must be
the blessing of God on that person's life," because it doesn't make sense from a human
perspective how in the world men are out there working and having large families, too, and the
wife isn't bringing home any income, but yet they're making it work. It's through the power of God.
It's through the blessing of God. That's an example of how you can let your light shine before men,
that people could see your good works and glorify God on your behalf, having a single income family
in a dark time like this. What about your parents? You know, my grandfather, he used to work in a
grocery store, and in the 40s and 50s, it doesn't matter if you were the owner of the grocery store,
a manager, a clerk, if you were the guy mopping the floors, you were the guy stocking the shelves.
Every single man was wearing a suit and tie. You know that back at that time, you look at footage
of New York City, and every single man is wearing a shirt and tie, and every single man has short hair,
and every single man is looking sharp. Now, in 2022, if you go to Walmart, I mean you're
going to see people wearing their Batman pajamas, and their BB crop tops, with their blue hair,
and men look like they haven't shaved in 500 years on one side of their face, but they tried
on another side of their face, and they've never showered before in their life. I mean,
what is the world going to think about you when you just walk into Walmart after church,
and you're wearing your suit and tie, and your wife's wearing her dress, and your kids all look
good? They're going to know something about you immediately. You know, I love coffee, okay? And so,
sometimes I like to go work on a Saturday at a coffee shop or whatever. Here's the thing
about coffee shops. I love coffee. Coffee shops are usually pretty weird, okay? They're pretty
liberal and pretty strange. And I notice that I get really, really bad service when I go on a
Saturday and I'm working at a coffee shop. And you want to know why I think it is? I think it's
because I'm wearing a shirt and tie. And I think that they know, like, this person's a Christian.
This person actually walks like a man. This person doesn't have his wrist like this everywhere he
goes, right? And they know something about me. They know something about you just by looking at
you. Would you have been able to shine like that in 1940? No, you would not. How about, you know,
when it comes to your hair? You know, men are supposed to have short hair. I'll read for you
1 Corinthians 11, it says this, "Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long
hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is
given her for a covering." You know, it's never been easier to let your light shine before men
when it comes to your hair. Because, you know, like I said, in the 40s and 50s, all men had short hair,
all women had long hair, right? Now there's a pastor down the street with Todd White who has
white dreadlocks. It's horrific, right? It's real easy now to let your light shine before men,
where it used to be everyone had short hair. Now you go to a church and some people are wearing
pajamas and men have long hair and women have short hair, right? Female pastors with their
short Karen cuts, looking horrific, making videos about our church, telling us why we're wrong about
the Bible, right? Hey, it's pretty easy in 2022 to let your light shine before men, to just look
like a man if you're a man, to just look like a woman if you're a woman. It's never been easier
before. Deuteronomy 22 5 says, "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall
a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God." It used
to be in America that it was literally illegal for women to wear pants. Guess what? You're not
going to let your light shine before men in 1920, 1910, when it's literally illegal for a woman to
wear pants, but now it's like the majority of women wear pants. And so if you're wearing a skirt
as a woman, people are going to think, "Oh, that's a Christian. That's a Christian right there," just
by the way you look. And you're able to literally glorify God just by simply existing. Never been
easier before to do that, right? That's amazing. How about having lots of kids? Go to Psalm 127.
Psalm 127. Psalm 127.3 says this, "Low children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the
womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall
speak with the enemies in the gate." You know, in our culture, in our world, people either want to
literally murder their children through abortion, or they want to prevent having kids with birth
control. And some of those methods even kill children as well, by the way. Or they just want
to have one and a half kids, the average, you know, one and a half, two, maybe three children per family, right? That's
what America's wisdom is today. That's what our culture says. But when they see a family that God,
that they just allow God to bless them, they realize that God opens and closes the womb,
and they're just going to trust the Lord and have as many kids as God will give them. And they see,
you know, a young couple with lots of kids, they're going to know that you believe differently.
They're going to know that there's something different about you, because that is not the
world's conventional wisdom. That is not what worldly, unsafe people do or believe. That is
something that is specific to Christians. They see you with a big family and they're going to know
something about you immediately that you're a Christian. When I see big families out and about,
I'm thinking, "Okay, are you Mormon? Are you Pentecostal? Or are you a fundamental Baptist?"
That's pretty much it, right? So people can know that about you. Go to John chapter number 17. John
chapter number 17. John 17, look at verse number 14. "I have given them thy word," is Jesus praying
to the Father, "and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them
through thy truth. Thy word is truth." So Jesus' desire for us is that we would live in the world.
He doesn't want us to go on some compound anywhere. He doesn't want us to go live out in the woods,
away from society. He wants us to live in society, but he doesn't want us to be of the world. He
doesn't want us to be like the world. You know, even we could look back at the 70s and 80s and 90s
and look at Pastor Hiles and look at these other great fundamentalist Baptist movements. But guess
what? In 2022, you can still be an independent fundamental Baptist in 2022. And guess what? When
you do it, you shine like never before. It wasn't as odd to see people soul winning in the 1970s.
It wasn't as odd to see a woman wearing a dress in the 1970s. But guess what? You can still raise
your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in 2022. Hey, wives can still obey their
husbands like the Bible teaches in 2022, regardless of what the world says about it. Husbands can still
go out and work hard in 2022. Preachers can still preach the entire word of God in 2022, even if
it's not happening as often as it was happening in the 70s and 80s. Hey, do you know that you
could still go out and knock doors and preach people the gospel of Jesus Christ in 2022?
You know that you could still wake up every morning and open your 1611 King James Bible
and read it every single day in 2022? You know you can still pray to the Lord every single day
in 2022? We can still be fundamentalists in 2022, I'm trying to tell you. So why look back and
long for those days when you can have it right now? We could be the exception. And guess what,
when we're the exception, we get to shine even brighter than they did. That's a blessing. So be
the exception. Be different than this world. We can still do it in 2022. Now for sake of time,
I'm going to skip some of this, but go to Mark chapter number one. Mark chapter number one. I
said stop living in the past as a Christian movement. Stop living in the past as a Christian
movement. Number two, stop living in your past successes. Stop living in your past successes.
Let's start reading in Mark chapter number one, verse 21. And as we're reading, I want you to
count and pay attention to all the different works that the Lord Jesus Christ is accomplishing. Pay
attention to what he's doing, okay? Mark 1, 21. "And they went into Capernaum, and straightway on
the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught." Notice he's teaching. "And they were
astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority and not as the scribes.
And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying,
'Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God.' And Jesus rebuked him, saying, 'Hold thy peace,
and come out of him.' And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice,
he came out of him. And they were all amazed in so much that they questioned among themselves,
saying, 'What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even
the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.'" So notice he's teaching. What else is he doing?
He's casting out devils. Let's keep reading. 28, "And immediately his fame spread abroad
throughout the region about Galilee. And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue,
they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay
sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted
her up. And immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them." Notice he's healing
people. Verse 32, "And that even when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were
diseased, and them that were possessed with devils, and all the city was gathered together at the door.
And he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases, and cast out many devils, and suffered
not the devils to speak, because they knew him." Now he's casting out more devils, healing more
people. Sounds like he's working really hard, right? He's getting a lot done. Verse 35, "And
in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place,
and there prayed. So even though he's working hard, he's still not missing his daily devotion time
with the Lord. He's still waking up early and praying despite doing all these works. Verse 36,
"And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. When they had found him, they said unto
him, 'All men seek for thee.' And he said unto them." Did he say, "Well, you know, we've done enough
work now that we could retire now. We've done enough. I think we've already accomplished a lot.
I mean, haven't you seen how much I've been doing? I've been healing people. I've been casting out
devils. I've been healing people. I've been casting out devils. I've been healing people. I've been casting out devils. I've been preaching. I've been praying."
All these things that he's doing, Jesus didn't just, he wasn't just content with all the works
that he'd already done, all the success that he'd already done. Notice what he says, verse 38,
"And he said unto them, 'Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, for therefore
came I forth.' And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and cast out devils."
Notice, he was not content, even though this 48-hour period that the Bible's talking about,
he worked super hard. I mean, he was preaching and healing, casting out devils and praying and
preaching and healing and casting out devils and praying, right? He's just doing all these things.
He's working super, super hard. Wakes up real early, prays to the Lord, and his disciples come
up to him and he's saying, "Hey, let's go to the next town. Let's keep working. Let's keep going."
He wasn't just satisfied with the success that he had had in his past. Yet, how many people do
you hear, "Back in my day, we preached hard. Back in my day, the church house was full." I've
literally heard these things out soul-winning, talking to old-timers and they'll say, "Oh,
it's so cool that you guys are doing this. We used to go soul-winning. Oh, my church used to
go door-to-door and preach the gospel. Hey, our pastor used to preach hard." Right? Haven't you
heard people talk like this before? What's their problem? They're living in the past. They're
living in the past in their past successes. But Jesus did not have this mentality. He didn't say,
"Well, I've done enough. I've worked hard enough." All those successes, they're good enough. He said,
"No, why don't we just go to the next town and keep doing the same exact thing?" And so we need
to have the same mentality where it's like, "Hey, hey, we had a great soul winning marathon. Who
cares? Where's the next one? Oh, we had a great time in church last week. Who cares? Are you here
right now? Are you paying attention right now? Hey, who cares about this service? Where are you
going to be tonight? You're going to be back? Oh, well, you know, I used to go soul winning.
Why'd you stop? Let's go to the next town." You know, I don't say this to shame anyone because I
don't know everyone's situation. But, you know, the Saturday soul winning time used to sometimes
have 30, almost to 40 people. And I hope the reason for that, I hope the reason for that is
you just decided to go to a different soul winning time. That's fine. That's great. But I hope it's
not because you used to go soul winning. Well, I used to preach the gospel. I used to go soul
winning. I hope that's not the reason why those numbers have decreased. I hope it's just because
you found a different soul winning time. But hey, you don't ever want to get to the point in your
life you're like, "Well, I used to go to Fundamental Baptist Church. Now I go to the fun center. Now my
kids are, you know, eating candy during the service in the kids church, not learning the word of God."
Well, you know, I used to have a family devotion time. Why'd you stop? Keep going. Don't just look
at your past and say, "Well, I've had a lot of successes. I can be content with that." No. No,
you want to go to the next towns. You want to keep preaching the word of God. And yeah, we may have
had great successes. Last year, I believe we had 2,111 salvations. How about this year? How are we
doing soul winning this year? Are we going out as much? You know, have you ever read the Bible
through cover to cover? Are you going to get that done again this year? Or are you going to say,
"Well, I used to read my Bible cover to cover in a year. I used to pick up my Bible and read it,
now I don't anymore." You know, you could say, "Well, I used to have a lot of Scripture memorized."
Well, you don't want to get to the point where it's a "used to." Just keep working at it.
Never be content with the amount of success that you have in your life. And that goes for any area.
You know, if you're succeeding in your job, "Well, last year I had a really good year.
You know, I had good reviews, everything like that." Well, that doesn't mean you stop working.
Who cares about last year? Go to the next one. You run a business, say, "Oh, we had really great
numbers last year." No, you just forget about that year. You go to the next one.
You know, when I grew up playing baseball, I was a pitcher, and this is something every coach always
just drilled into your head. They called it "flush it." Meaning, "Last pitch, forget about it." You
know, pitcher, you ever wonder how pitchers, you know, they're pitching and they give up a home run
and they seem unfazed by it. They're just going to the next pitch. Because that pitch is gone.
You can't do anything about that pitch. You just go to the next one. You focus on the next pitch.
Get the ball in the strike zone next time. Right? And even if you had a really great inning. Let's
say you had three strikeouts last inning. Who cares about that last inning? Go into the next one and
throw strikes. Right? You don't ever want to just be content with the level of success that you had
as a Christian or in work or in anything. I'll read for you Titus 3.8 says this. "This is a
faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in
God might be careful to maintain good works." These things are good and profitable unto men.
Bible teaches that we're supposed to be continuously preaching hard against sin,
reinforcing the doctrines, and telling people that they need to maintain good works. Because
if you're not maintaining as a Christian, if you're not applying the things that you hear,
you are dying and you are going backwards. And so it does not matter how successful of a year you
had last year, it doesn't matter how great of a soul-winning experience you had the last time,
forget about it and look forward to the next one. And say, "Hey, let's go preach at the next towns
like Jesus did." I mean, what Jesus accomplished in those 48 hours is more than most Christian
ministries ever get accomplished in their entire existence, right? I mean, he's getting people
saved, he's healing them, he's praying, he's doing all these works. But he was not content with that.
A lot of Baptists today would be content with that. A lot of Baptists today are content with
door-to-door visitation, not actually preaching them the gospel, and saying, "Oh yeah, last year
was so great. You know, we had 500 people knock on doors, and we had one person come to church
and get saved at the altar." Right? It's like, don't be content with that. Why don't you actually
start preaching the gospel, start getting people saved at their door, and start racking up
salvations? And then even when you do that, don't be content with that either. Go to the next town,
go to the next zip code, go to the next apartment complex, and keep preaching the Word of God.
Never be content with the level of success. This even goes for people in the ministry. Titus 3 14,
you can say where you are. It says, "And let ours also," Paul's referring to his helpers in the
ministry, "let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not
unfruitful." You know, it's important that you don't get so busy in the work that you skip things
like your daily prayer time and your daily Bible reading, like you saw Jesus do. He was working
really hard, but he also got up and prayed to the Lord and had to spend time with God. It's important
not to let that stuff slip, to maintain your Christian walk. But I guarantee you, every single
person in here, including myself, can think of an area in their life that they were doing better in
before and are doing worse in now. And so you don't want to ride on your past successes. If there's
something that you thought you used to be doing better, you know what? That's something that you
need to give your attention to and focus your attention on, is that aspect of your life. Say,
"Well, last year, you know, I did really good. I had 30 salvations." And then this year you've just
dropped the ball on soul winning. You just haven't been going out. Don't just look back at the 30,
start again today, keep going. That goes for anything. Where are you at in your Bible reading?
Are you reading more Bible than you did last year or less? Are you preaching the gospel more? Is
your church attendance more this year or less? You know, now in our time as the world gets more and
more dark, you should be taking your walk with God even more seriously than you did before. You
should be wanting to get in church even more than you ever have before, getting in your Bible more
than you ever have before, preaching people the word of God, handing out sodomy deceptions more
than you ever have before. Man, make that your personal mission. Give those to everyone you can,
please. Our country needs it. Don't live in your past successes. Number one, don't live in the
past as a Christian movement. Number two, don't live in your past successes. And number three,
don't live in your past failures as well. Don't live in your past failures. Go to Galatians
chapter number one. When I think of someone who had their past was a complete failure, I think the
person that all of us think of is the Apostle Paul, right? And this has been preached ad nauseam in
churches, but there's a reason why is because it's a powerful story. It's the Word of God,
it's powerful truths, and it's in the Bible for a reason. Galatians chapter number one. Look at
verse 13. This is Paul talking about himself. He says, "For ye have heard of my conversion in times
past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it."
So Paul, when he's describing his former life, he was saying, "I didn't just persecute Christians.
I didn't just persecute the church of God. I did it beyond measure." That's a serious sin, right?
This guy was a seriously bad guy, persecuting Christians. Let's keep reading about that. Go
to Acts chapter number eight. We'll read more about his past. Acts chapter number eight. Look
at verse one. "And Saul," that was Paul's name before he got converted, "and Saul was consenting
unto his death," speaking of Stephen, "and at that time there was a great persecution against the
church," which is at Jerusalem, "and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great
lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and
hailing men and women, committed them to prison." So what was Paul doing before he got saved? He
was witnessing the stoning of Stephen, who was a man of God, preaching powerful sermons on the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He was consenting to his death, and he was literally entering into
every house, hailing men and women. What does that mean? It means he was going door to door,
finding out who was Christians, and arresting them, dragging them out of their house,
and arresting them. Can you imagine living in a time like that? It's going to be very similar to
what the time of the Great Tribulation is going to be like, where you literally have a man that's
going door to door, trying to find Christians. This guy sounds like he has a really, really bad
past, right? And this is extremely wicked. Look at Acts chapter number nine, flip one page over,
Acts chapter nine, verse nine, "And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against
the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus,
to the synagogues; and if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might
bring them bound unto prison." Not only that, Paul's just threatening them, breathing out threats
and slaughter against Christians. He's consenting unto their death. He's pulling them out of houses,
persecuting the church of God. You know, I don't think that there's a single person—actually,
I know, there's no one in this room that has a past that bad. We would know about you. You'd be
on the news or something, you know. We would know. No one in here has a past that bad. No one in here
has literally persecuted Christians, consenting unto their state-sanctioned execution and dragging
them out of houses to be in prison. No one in here has a past that bad, yet there's a common attitude
out there. And you know it's out there where people say, "Well, I'm just too sinful to serve God."
You know, the Apostle Peter even had this attitude where he said that he's too sinful to even receive
the Lord Jesus Christ into his house. And there are many people that are discouraged from serving
God because they think that they have too sinful of a past. It's a lie. It is a lie. Because let's
think about some of the accomplishments that the Apostle Paul had in his life after he got saved.
We know what he was like before, but think about this. The Apostle Paul wrote 28% of the New
Testament, if you include the book of Hebrews, which I believe is written by the Apostle Paul.
So like, that's including the Gospels, which those are a huge chunk of the New Testament.
28% of the New Testament. 14 books of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul had three
long missionary journeys. The Apostle Paul planted churches. The Apostle Paul got tons of people
saved. He remained steadfast through persecution and he laid the foundation for Christianity in the
first century. Every single New Testament church in this world partly owes their existence to the
work of the Apostle Paul. A man who was attacking the church of God. A man who was breathing out
threats and slaughtering against God's people. A man who was consenting unto the execution of
Christians. A man who was going door to door persecuting God's people. That's the accomplishments
of that guy. You know, if we didn't have this in the Bible, it would be hard to believe, right?
But I think God is giving us this extreme of an example that we can look at the Apostle Paul and
say, "Okay, well if God can use the Apostle Paul, He can use me. If God can use the Apostle Paul,
He can use you. He can use St. Fast Baptist Church. He can use any church." Because none of us
have a past this bad. Philippians chapter number three, go to Philippians chapter number three.
You know, I'm glad that the Apostle Paul did not live in his past when it came to his failures.
Because if he would have lived in his past, you know, we probably wouldn't be here as a movement
today. Crazy to think about. Philippians chapter number three, verse four. So the context of this,
he's basically telling this church to beware of the Jews, okay? Now look at verse number four. It
says, "Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, any other man thinketh that he hath
whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more." So you got these Judaizers and they're trying to get
these Christians to trust in the flesh and have circumcision, all these things. They're saying,
if you guys want to have confidence in the flesh, I'm really someone that could have confidence in
the flesh. Look at verse 5, "Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe
of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is of the law, blameless." He's saying,
I always kept the Sabbath. I didn't eat any bacon. I was just a perfect little Jew. I was
a perfect little Pharisee, right? Verse 7, "But what things were gained to me, I counted those
lost, Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but
done, that I may win Christ." Why was the Apostle Paul able to be so successful? Because he looked
at everything in his past, his accomplishments, his successes, and his failures, and he counted
it all done. He said, "It's all trash. It's all worthless. None of it matters. The only thing that
matters is what's before me, the excellency of Christ, the knowledge of Christ." And he's saying
that he's even suffering things for Christ, and he's fine with that because he's counted all of
those things done, all of his mistakes, all of his failures. He's letting all of those things go,
and he's serving God. Look at verse 9, "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is
of God, by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect,
but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."
Then this important verse, pay attention to this verse, "Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended." He's saying, "I haven't reached, I haven't attained, I haven't gotten there yet,
but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth
unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus." Notice the singularity mindset that the apostle Paul had.
He had one thing that he was focused on, which was forgetting all of those things in the past.
He made it his mission. He made a cognizant decision in his mind saying, "I am going to let
this stuff go. The wicked stuff that I did, the good stuff that I thought I was doing,
I'm letting all of it go. I'm not paying attention to it. I'm flushing it like I was taught in
baseball." He's forgetting about that last pitch and he's looking towards the batter and he's
throwing the new pitch. What is he looking to now? It says, "And reaching forth unto those things
which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
See, the Apostle Paul, he forgot about the last inning where he did horribly. He forgot about,
you know, how he just gave up six home runs, right? And now he's looking towards the new
inning and he's focused on that. And that's what we have to do as a church, as Christians. We have
to 100% let go of your successes, let go of your failures, don't think about them, don't care about
them, but press forward to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That is what we
must do. That is a mindset that all of us have to learn to have. I'll read for you 1 John 1 9. It
says this, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness." It does not matter how sinful of a past you have, even as sinful of a
past as the Apostle Paul. If you confess and ask God for forgiveness for those sins, the Bible
says it's a guaranteed promise, 100% He will forgive you. You have as much of a chance of
losing your salvation as you have of God not forgiving you, because this is a promise of God.
Chance is zero. God absolutely will forgive you when you confess your sins to Him. It does not
matter what kind of a past you had. So don't use any excuses, "Oh, before I was saved, I drank a lot,
and I partied a lot, and I did this, and I did that, or I was a gang member." There's no excuse.
There's no excuse whatsoever. Let go of your past. And even if, think about this, even if, let's say,
like the Apostle Paul, his whole entire past was a failure. Like everything about his life was a
failure. But maybe, maybe your entire past wasn't a failure, but maybe just you have a big failure.
Maybe like you live a pretty good life, but maybe you really screwed up in a big way one time. You
know, maybe you do go to church, maybe you are reading your Bible, but maybe recently you did
drink alcohol again recently, right? That is a big failure. But my question is, because you failed,
so did you just throw up your hands and say, "Well, I better just start drinking now. I better just
become an alcoholic now because I messed up one time." Absolutely not. The same principle applies.
Let go of your past. Ask God to forgive you. Move on. God will forgive you. He can renew you
100 percent. There's people in every single church that have sin in their path because,
guess what? We all have sin in our presence. We're all sinners. You say, "Well, you know,
I grew up in church and I screwed up and I committed fornication." Confess it to God and
forsake it and forget about it. Don't sit there living your whole life with this weird guilt trip
on yourself that God can't use you because you committed fornication. Hey, let's say you screwed
up really bad. Let's say you committed adultery. Should you just give up on God? Should you just
completely give up and throw in the towel and just continue living in that wicked sin? No,
because guess what? There's a man named David in your Bible who literally committed adultery
and murder. And did he just give up? No. He confessed his sin though. He said, "I am the man.
I am the man." And he asked God to forgive him. He asked God to renew the joy of his salvation.
And guess what? God did it for David. God did it for David. He forgave him of a sin. And David
went on to do great things for him, writing a large portion of the book of Psalms. You know,
you don't want to be that person that because you mess up you just throw in the towel. You know,
if you had a bad week, if you had a bad day, if you committed even a really large sin, you know,
you're going to have consequences for those sins. Don't get me wrong. You do reap what you sow. But
I'm telling you, no matter what, God can still use you. And one of the things that I love that
Pastor Shelley always says is that it's never a bad time to serve God. Oh, okay, King David,
you completely screwed up. You committed adultery and you literally murdered her husband. There's
still never a bad time to serve God. There's still never a bad time to get things right. There's
still never a bad time to ask God to forgive you and to get things right. It's way better for you
to have screwed up in a major way and then get things right and then serve God rather than to
screw up in a major way and then just quit. Would any of us have had the respect for King David that
we all have for him now if that would have been the end of King David's story? Well, yeah, he did
slay, you know, Goliath, but then he committed adultery and murdered someone. The end? No,
that's not how David's story went, right? So, don't allow yourself to discourage yourself by
your mistakes. Do not do it. Ask God to forgive you and He will forgive you. I'll read for you
Proverbs 28-13. It says this, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but who so confesseth
and forsake at them shall have mercy." The Bible says that it is a 100% promise that when you
confess and forsake your sins, God will give you mercy. You know that under the Old Testament,
the sin that King David committed was a capital offense worthy of death, but God showed him mercy,
didn't He? God showed him mercy and it is a testament to how that could be the exact same
for us. You know, our church has had some really bad things in the past, have we not? We've had a
pastor that screwed up majorly, but should we as a church live in the past for the past failures that
our church has had? Should we just throw in the towel because there was someone that was in major
sin and just say, "Well, it's done for Set-A-Fast Baptist Church." No, we're not going to look at
our past successes or our past failures. We're just going to go to the next town, like Jesus said,
and just keep preaching the Word of God. And if you mess up in your life,
confess and forsake, but don't quit. And us as Christians, just to recap,
you know, we live in a crazy time. We live in a time where our country is very dark and wicked,
and it can be very tempting to look at the good old days and long for those days,
but it's not wise. They have their problems too. We don't want as a church to be looking back at
the old days of our movement. No, we want to be focused right now on our movement right now,
and the great things we can do for God right now. And when we have successes,
flush it. And when we have failures, flush it and just keep going and keep preaching to the next
towns. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much this day. Thank you for the encouragement
of your word. I pray that you please bless this church. I pray that we wouldn't be dwelling in the
past as a church and comparing ourselves to other churches and comparing their situation to our
situation. Lord, I pray that we could be content in whatever state that we're in. I pray that we
also wouldn't sit and dwell on our past successes for too long and just be content with the great
works by your mercy and grace that we have been able to accomplish at this church, Lord. I pray
also that we wouldn't get discouraged by the failures that our church has had and that because
we're all humans, we probably will have in the future, Lord, in some way. All of us are sinners
and in our own lives we'll have successes and failures. I pray that we wouldn't allow those
things to discourage us, that we'd go on and continue to serve you. We love you so much in
Jesus' name. Amen. To the message, Brother Dillon. Let's go ahead and sing one more song before we
head home. If you'll take out your hymnal again. The 472, "This is my Father's world." We're all in
His kingdom. It's a good reminder for that. 472, "This is my Father's world." This is my Father's
world. Who sings and mist. God bless.